Doesn't US Congress have the power to put Clapper in custody, assemble a group of congresspeople to form an impeachment procedure committee, and investigate whether he really lied to them (in which case he can stay in jail for a few years and gets fired)?
If so, then just complaining and gesturing to the president seems counter-productive, because it undermines their own powers that they already have. And, being congresspeople, they probably LIKE their powers.

Because they're "capitalist pigs", or because they're haram?
Never mind either case, you're on the watchlist now, Bob.--Meat packaging lobbyist group of America

Just the data is not very useful in itself, but the last couple of decades have also seen great progress in Machine Learning, Bayesian statistics, Neural Networks etc. etc.

There is precedent in the Amsterdam city archive keeping track of what religion everyone had. That was also only data collection, with only beneficial purpose. Then the government ahem "changed", and they sent a group of SSers over to write down where all the Jews lived.

If he did, the Republicans would then claim that Obama is deliberately sabotaging the NSA and jeopardizing national security. To the Republicans, every move Obama makes is wrong, no matter what move that may be.

The Republicans? Oh yeah, that was some kind of political party in the 20th century; like the Whigs. or was that the 19th.

Good point. Clearly, you need a new U.S. congress, to repeal those bad laws and install better ones.

Yes. Borat's sister has one.

And what could those Senators have done in response? Increase the NSA budget even more?

I would like to add to that, that from the USA's security risk/reward perspective, it's probably better to have and keep allies, rather than to spy on those allies.

BTW I said "allies", not "vassals". Noam Chomsky's book is called "Hegemony or Survival", not "Hegemony and Survival".

So, the obvious solution is, to make a "Constitutional Reform Party" with only 1 agenda point: to change election law to normal representative voting like all other non-commonwealth democracies, and then call new elections within half a year.
Oh and take money out of politics. "The best democracy money can buy" indeed...

Because Snowden would look weird in a turkey costume, that's why.

Yeah! Like Oliver North! ;-)

Judging from the reactions yours was indeed an unpopular opinion :-)

Snowden committed crimes. For the rule of law, he should be tried and sentenced to the prescribed penalty for those crimes.
I'm glad we know what he told us. But you can't not prosecute people who undoubtedly did commit crimes because you agree with their stated motives.

(emphasis mine)
You bring up an interesting point, and I don't think that you're trolling.

But your statement presupposes that you're living under the rule of law, in the USA at the moment.
But, we have proof that this is not so:

• 1. US Congress security oversight committee asks Clapper: is it true that you're doing mass surveillance on US civilians? (I paraphrase; feel free to look up the original text yourself and post it here)
• 2. Clapper says no.
• 3. Snowden proves that the answer should have been "yes"
• ???
• 5. Security oversight committee notices that Clapper was lying under oath to his bosses (them), and begins an impeachment procedure against that recalcitrant underling

• no... that's *NOT* what happened; and this is, in fact, the scary thing for us outside the USA:

• 5. Security oversight committee notices that Clapper was lying under oath to his bosses (them), and decides to increase the NSA's budget
• 6. If you haven't noticed this yet, this is actual proof that you currently don't have the rule of law, otherwise the media's attention would be directed to Clapper and Alexander and not to scapegoat Snowden.

• 7. No profit. Seriously. I think you have NO idea of the damage this has done to US interests worldwide.

To paraphrase it in computer-like Slashdot terms:
NSA >> official USA government
NSA pwns official USA government
NSA is above the US law (which means that you don't have rule of law which was your original point)

So... tell me.. if we want to do business with an American multinational; or sign a trade agreement with the USA; who do we have to talk to? Whose is the hand up the puppet's bum? It is unclear. Conspiracy theories are just theories, but the reality is that outsiders cannot know who currently leads the USA (just that it's not the official president and government).
Better not to do any business with USA until the situation is cleared up. If it turns out that e.g. the Mafia is pulling the strings of the NSA/USA government, then we'll at least know whom we're negotiating with, and what negotiating points might be of strategic value of them.

tl;dr version:
security organizations cause scandal. well, shit happens. that is not nice but there are procedures under rule of law to correct it. For government employees in USA I belive it's called "impeachment" (it's not just for presidents, you know).
the people in oversight/power react to the revelations with "oh well.. so our employees lied to us.. let's increase their budget". That is NOT normal. People in power (congressmen) are probably not the kind of pushovers that would react like that, or they wouldn't have climbed to the top of the US political pyramid in the first place. Can you tell us if many congressmen like Senator Dianne Feinstein actually have humble, kindly personalities? We don't see them on TV very often over here.

That can only happen after the USA has repealed the "The Hague Invasion Act", otherwise you're just shuffling those poor people back-and-forth all the time.

If you believe this web page, the SuperBowl will be hit with a terrorist attack planned by the NSA:

<tinfoil-hat>
OMG!11one!!
I KNEW it!
The NSA was behind Janet Jackson showing a tastefully decorated nipple!
</tinfoil-hat>

What is it this time, here other nipple? Think about all the heart attacks this will cause to unsuspecting American viewers!